Working at Safeway in San Leandro, CA: 2 Employee Job Reviews by Real Employee working in San Leandro, CA Area

"I worked at Safeway from the time I was 16, which is the employment date I shared, until 2016 and I'm sad to say that the company I had a lot of loyalty to and love for ceased to exist well before I finally made my exit. I worked my way up from being a bagger, all the way to being an assistant produce manager just before I left the company. Despite the assistant in that title, for all intents and purposes, I was the one running that department, as I was the one sent there specifically to fix the failing department. I was responsible for implementing the changes which ultimately resulted in turning the department around and creating an actual produce team, which had been absent before. The only reason I didn't officially take over the department is that I was a short-timer by that point, having enrolled to go back to school for my teaching credential. Despite Safeway's reputation for being a job that's flexible in scheduling around college courses, and willing to work with people while they are going to college (and are likely to end up leaving the company to do something else more closely related to their studies at some point following completion) this couldn't be further from the truth, at least in my own personal experience. They consistently failed to honor my scheduling requirements. When one schedule came out, it was on me to figure out a solution (which often resulted in me just working the shift at expense of studies). Also, despite my many years of service, once they knew I was leaving and they had no more leverage on me (because that is very much how they operate), they found ways to speed up my departure, a practice I saw happen with a consistency over the years that would suggest it was part of the company culture. Due to unfortunate circumstances beyond my control, I wasn't able to enroll in a credential program immediately after graduating, which when combined with their horrible scheduling practices resulted in many additional years."